This application claims priority from JP 126657/98 filed Apr. 22, 1998, JP 153696/98 filed May 20, 19998filed 164468/98 filed May 29, 1998, JP 316706/98 filed Nov. 6, 1998, and JP 316709/98 filed Nov. 6, 1998.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an agent for anti-osteoporosis, and more particularly to an agent for anti-osteoporosis, comprising trehalose as- an effective ingredient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Osteoporosis, alias Scalier""s disease, is a symptom of the bone where the absolute quantity of bone lowers without qualitative change. In living bodies, osteogenesis by osteoblasts and bone resorption by osteoclasts are continued ceaselessly. osteogenesis is induced by an imbalance between the rates of osteogenesis and bone resorption, caused by some factors, that is inclined to a negative equilibrium side. The major causatives of osteoporosis are classified into environmental- and genetic-factors; the former may be ageing and endocrine diseases such as hyperthyroidism, hypogonadism, Cushing syndrome, etc.; and the latter may be abnormality in an estrogen receptor gene, osteogenesis imperfecta tarda, homocysteinuria, etc. Once osteoporosis is caused, the following occurs successively to make bone porous; the width of cortical bone narrows, the cavity of bone marrow enlarges, and the trabecula of cancellous bone lowers. As osteoporosis progresses, the physical strength of bone lowers, and this makes patients complain frequently about their lumbago and arthralgia and makes their bone broken easily with only a slight shock.
In the treatment of osteoporosis, patients are usually administered with analgesics to relieve pain, and then administered with calcium-metabolism related agents such as preparations of activated vitamin D, calcitonin, estrogen, and protein anabolic hormones. Most of these conventional agents for osteoporosis were hormone preparations which may induce serious side effects; some patients may be forced to cease their administrations before receiving the desired therapeutic effect.
The incidence of osteoporosis is more and more accelerated as ageing. As the graying is just around the corner, it is now greatly need to explore a daily and easily usable agent for anti-osteoporosis that exerts an effective therapeutic/prophylactic effect to live on healthy and to enjoy a worry-free retirement.
In view of the foregoing, the present object according to the present invention is to provide an agent for anti-osteoporosis that exerts an effective therapeutic/prophylactic effect when administered orally or parenterally.
The present inventors"" screening for various substances resulted in a completely unexpected finding that trehalose, a disaccharide, controls the osteogenesis, inclined to a negative equilibrium side, to the normal conditions when administered to mammals and humans, and then exerts a therapeutic/prophylactic effect on osteoporosis with lesser side effects. The present invention solves the above object by providing an orally or parenterally administrable agent for anti-osteoporosis, comprising trehalose as an effective ingredient.
Trehalose is a disaccharide, composed of two glucose molecules bound together at their reducing groups, and is widely distributed in the natural world; it is present in microorganisms, mushrooms, insects, etc. Although the demand of trehalose as a substituent saccharide for sucrose has been increased in the fileds of food products, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, the physiological action of trehalose in mammals is not substantially elucidated except for an energy-supplementing action, moisture-imparting action on the skin, and controlling action on fatty acid in the blood.
Trehalose per se is a known compound. The present invention, however, as mentioned above, was made based on a self finding that the trehalose exerts an outstanding anti-osteoporosis in mammals. Thus, the use of trehalose as an orally or parenterally administrable agent for anti-osteoporosis is novel.